iVOOMi today launched its iVOOMi i2 smartphone, which runs Android 8.1 Oreo, priced at Rs 7,499. The device is the successor to the company’s i1 and i1s smartphones that were launched back in January 2018. The iVOOMi i2 smartphone will be available exclusively on Flipkart. The smartphone will be made available in only one configuration, though it will come in two colour variants – Olive Black and Indigo Blue.

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The smartphone looks good and might have an upper hand over its competition in the price bracket due to its face recognition feature. However, there is a lot of competition in the Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 price bracket. Companies like Xiaomi, Samsung, Honor have a few good offerings already in the market. The competition is tough, but will the iVOOMi i2 be able to stand out? Here is our full review.

iVOOMi i2 review

The iVOOMi i2 looks good, thanks to the 3D glass effect on the back, which is not seen in this price bracket. On the front we get to see a 5.45-inch HD display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels, along with the 8MP selfie camera with a single LED flash. On the back, there is a removable plastic back panel, which has been given a glass look and feel by the company, a vertically aligned dual camera setup and the iVOOMi branding.

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The iVOOMi i2 sports a 5.45-inch HD+ display

On the top of the phone you will find the 3.5mm audio jack along with the micro-USB port for charging and data transfer. On the right side of the smartphone are the volume rockers and the power button. On the bottom, we get to see the primary microphone and the loudspeaker.

Coming to the build, the iVOOMi i2 does suffer a bit in this department. The back panel wraps around the sides of this smartphone and feels a bit loose when pressed, which might be specific to our review unit. Due to the glass finish, it is a fingerprint magnet and you will find yourself cleaning it a lot.

iVOOMi i2 review: What’s good?

iVOOMi i2 touts a FullView display, however, the top and bottom bezels on the device are easily visible. Both indoors and outdoors under direct sunlight, the display is crisp and vibrant. There were only a few instances where I found myself covering the screen with my hand to read something. Overall for its price, this is a good display.

The main USP of the iVOOMi i2 is its facial recognition technology, which is a rare feature at this price point. The company has focused a lot on bringing this technology to its i2 smartphone, while at the same time removing the fingerprint sensor, which is more common. The facial recognition was a bit tricky to find in the Settings, but when completely set up, it worked well considering the smartphone’s price. The smartphone recognised the registered face almost instantly, and would open up with just a quick upwards swipe on the screen.

The best thing about the software of the iVOOMi i2 is that the company has provided the users with the latest Android operating system in the market, which Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box. Though the smartphone comes with a custom skin on top of the operating system, the company has kept the user interface similar to the stock configuration with minor changes.

As for the benchmark tests, the device was able to score 46635 on AnTuTu benchmark, and as for Geekbench 4, the device was able to score 657 in the single-core test and 1725 in the multi-core test. The device gets a decent score considering the price and specifications and is comparable to other budget phones in this segment.

The device only has a single loud-speaker

Coming to the performance of the smartphone in the real world, iVOOMi i2 handles normal tasks like making calls, texting and browsing the internet easily and there is no noticeable lag as such. However, when it comes to heavy tasks like playing graphic intensive games, the device shows lags and stutters. If you want to play Asphalt 8 on this, iVOOMi 2 is not the right phone.

It features a dual camera setup on the back

The battery life of the iVOOMi i2 is really good. On a single charge, the device was able to last over a full workday on heavy usage. While using the smartphone with normal usage, it lasted around a day and a half. The device charged from 0 to 100 within 3 and a half hours, which is not bad at the price point.

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iVOOMi i2: So what’s not good?

iVOOMi i2 does have good visibility, but the adaptive brightness feature does not work so well. In the test period, I found myself manually setting the brightness of the display to a suitable level so that my eyes did not hurt.

The facial recognition might be the USP of this smartphone, however, it is not its strongest suit. This is due to the fact that the device unlike the iPhone X and some other Android alternatives opens up even when the owner has closed eyes or is not looking directly into the phone. This might be a huge problem for many users as anyone can open their smartphone, while they are asleep. This can be rectified by a software update, which might help the device track the user’s face much accurately.

The device was loaded with bloatware which cannot be removed like the H5GameBox, Opera News, Amazon, UC Browser including others, though on budget phones it is common problem.

The company has managed to fit in a 3.5mm audio jack on to it

The camera modules on the iVOOMi i2 are not as good as we has hoped. The images taken from the primary camera in well-lit conditions can be categorised as average. The images turn out a bit overexposed, and lack details. Coming to the portrait mode, the device makes the image heavily blurred out, and only a small circle in the centre of the frame seems to be in focus. As for the front camera, it performs decently in good lighting conditions, however, in low light the camera struggles. Still in the budget category

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The image was taken in outdoor lighting (Images have been resized for web) Image taken indoors with average lighting (Images have been resized for web) Selfie taken in good lighting (Images have been resized for web)

iVOOMi i2 Should you buy?

iVOOMi i2 is a good-looking smartphone. The near stock user interface and the addition of facial recognition do add to its glamour. The performance is not bad, though this is not an ideal phone for gaming. Still the camera’s performance is not as impressive. Redmi 5A, Honor’s new 7C and 7A are packed with features for iVOOMi the competition is quite tough. In our view, take a look at all the other options before picking iVOOMi/